(As always, my introduction is long and drawn out. Feel free to skip down to the image, where I actually discuss the bloody game. Or you can check out the gametrailers review, which is spot on and about an hour shorter than my ramblings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0yMJCz4KQk)

RPGs are like really sappy women for me. I'm not saying all women are sappy, but the ones that are can usually be alluded to one RPG or another. And while comparing women to videogames is a great way to help this blog take a turn for the worst before even getting to a second sentence, I'd like you to bear with me. Seriously, I'm going somewhere with this.

Anyways, RPGs. Right. The thing about RPGs is that their looks and promise lull me into a false sense of optimism. "Millions of hours of gameplay", "super deep story will change your life", and "radical battle system" are on the back of all the cases, and yet I find myself bored to tears nine times out of ten, similar to how a girl I intend to woo ends up moping around after giving the impression that she was more stable. And in both scenarios, I find myself short 50 bucks. Super.

I don't hate women (quite the contrary) and I don't hate RPGs (again, quite the contrary). If I can have fun with either, then I can't possibly ask for more, and I think that's pretty generous considering some of the guys and gamers out there these days.

But while I have yet to find a female (they're like parking spots; the good ones are always taken!) I have found an RPG that I can call "the one". Like the title says, I haven't enjoyed an RPG this much since Chrono Trigger, which became my personal standard for RPGs back when I was a kid. The battles, the techs, the cast, it was all so new for me. It set the bar high, so high that none of the Final Fantasies (I hate the series, to be honest) came close, save for maybe FFXII, if only because it had a battle system that was more fun than watching the hourglass we call the ATB bar fill up. The Tales of games all felt so overly melodramatic that some of the conversations made me cringe ("is my magic so weak that I can't save a life? WOE IZ MEH ;_;"), and games like Luminous Arc and Golden Sun were ho-hum at best. Disgaea 1 and 2 WHERE interesting with their hilarious dialog, great voice acting, and deep combat system...if only I didn't have to GRIND LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER.

(This is the part where you get nerd rage and leave me angry comments. I'm sure you loved all the games I just trolled, but I found them all to be a collective waste of time.)

So when I give Persona 3 the honor of being quite possibly the best RPG I've played, I feel like I'm ignoring things like the few tedious parts at the beginning (only a few "weeks" in game) and lack of impressive graphics (though they get the job done). It's got faults, but there's one thing about Persona 3 that I feel makes it as awesome as Chrono Trigger:

Thank God Almighty, it actually tries to be different!



Like I said, it's hard to discuss Persona 3 without coming of as an ignorant fanboy. The blog banner and user icon don't help, either. I'll try to be as unbiased as I can, but I make no promises.

The first thing I love about Persona 3 so much is the scope. It's not trying to be like other RPGs, with this overworld that's so big that you can't find shit, and end up traversing for an entire day trying to find where to go next, fighting random battles every 5 steps until you're bored to tears. Nay, the game sticks to a narrower scope, but addresses different themes. The entire game takes place in one city, focusing on the people who populate it. Half the fun is going to school, flirting with girls, and winning kendo tournaments. Or maybe you want to go the the dance club and knock back a few with a drunken monk. There's so many interesting individuals that it's really rewarding to get to know them on a deeper level as they share their personal lives with you. None of them are shoved down my throat (how many throwaway NPCs are there in your average Final Fantasy?), so I can hang out with them to my own pace.

The other great thing about Persona 3, and the biggest draw for me, was the style. Seriously, it's one slick game. The music is catchy and so fitting that it's scary (the song that plays when you take exams is perfect). Menus slide and pop and spin, but don't feel unnecessary or in the way (hey Macs, do I really need to watch my window shrink and zoom when I minimize it? I clicked the minus button so that it would disappear, dammit.)

Click here to check out the groovy intro.

To top off the superficial pros of P3, the voice acting is really great. Don't listen to the Anime Elitist jerks who go out of their way to download UNDub patches; these actors do a fantastic job. Line delivery is dramatic, but not overly dramatic. And the localization team took the time to keep Japanese honorifics like "sempai" and "chan" in there, while reminding the player that this is Japan, keeping all traditions and such intact. Everything feels really genuine, and is on par with the passion Atlus put into the last big project, Odin Sphere. Characters like Junpei are more realistic than any emo Squall or Sora. When he goofs off, you think "oh that Junpei", and when he gets pissed, you take notice.

I think the best character out of the bunch is Aigis, hands down. Sadly, she doesn't show up until the Summer, roughly halfway through the game, but watching her go from confused robot who needs things explained to her to a real girl (sorta like Pinocchio :3) is really satisfying. Plus, she's absolutely adorable.


I WILL own this figure, even if I have to kill a small child.

And those are all things that drew me in. As I went in deeper, I stayed for two other things:

The battle system is really fun. Finding and exploiting weaknesses is enjoyable, and when you use every trick in the book to knock down 5 different foes, then commence with the hysterical "All Out Attack", that "LEVEL UP" is just so much sweeter.

I was turned off by not being able to control my allies, but watching them think on their own was neat later in the game. On one occasion, I thought a boss was going to rape us for sure. Instead of healing the party with her newly learned Diarahan spell (full health), Aigis chose to shoot at the boss instead. I screamed, knowing it was all over. She shouted "HASTA LA VISTA", and the boss died. My heart skipped, and she looked at the camera, crossed her arms, tilted her head, and said "did I succeed in protecting everyone?" What an attention whore.

The other thing that kept me hooked was the story. It's what Bleach should have been, before going on a field trip to the soul society and never coming back. The balance between "normal life" and "demon slayer" is a nice draw, but once you reach the first full moon (each marking a major boss battle and story point), the story reaches breakneck pace. Lies and deceit, love, hate, death, and moving on are all portrayed so well. Supposedly, the series tackles a lot of deep themes, which means I need to go back and play the other Shin Megami games.

By the time I beat the game, I clocked in well over 70 hours. That's the longest I've ever spent on a single player RPG, beating out FFXII's 65 hours. And it's strange: when I spent 30 hours on Okami, I wanted it to end, but it overstayed its welcome for another 10 hours. Okami wasn't bad, it just went on and on and didn't keep me hooked. But P3 became a routine for me; I played every night, from maybe 11 until the wee hours of the morning. It just felt weird playing during the day, which made beating it at 5PM so odd for me.

But in the end, I was really satisfied. Everything got tied up in a neat little package. The Velvet Room comes to an appropriate close, the problems are solved, the friends that I accidentally pissed off forgave me and helped me prevent the end of the world, I had sex with maybe 3 or 4 girls, and the main character went from a timid clumsy slacker to a charismatic badass genius over the course of the "year". Everyone grew so much, and when it all came full circle (the game ends at around the same time of the year that it begins), I felt like I actually finished the game. No unsettling ending (Shadow of the Colossus) or cliche crap, it ended just right.

As I sat through the credits, I looked at the names and the jobs involved. You know, companies like Atlus, Valve, Nintendo, and so on put so much heart and soul into their games. I mentioned in my blog on difficulty how I like when developers think of the gamer, and I felt like they really wanted this game to be as enjoyable as possible.

So while I apologize for yet another drawn out blog, I'd like to strongly recommend this game. It's as good as the time you invest in it, and it's got a lot of heart. While people will dismiss it for it's "emoness" (it's actually really upbeat), they're missing out on something really great.

And hey, it comes with an artbook and soundtrack. Who doesn't love freebies?